Dear Families,
It has been a really fantastic term with a lovely event on Friday to celebrate the learning students have engaged with and it was a great turn out from our school community. Many thanks to the staff and students for all their hard work this term and also for hosting a range of pre-service teachers. It has been challenging particularly in light of staff leave and the ongoing consultation process, but we are certainly moving positively into Term 3 with Laren joining our Early Years Team and Rosie McKee now working in our admin team in Finance and student support. Mel has now replaced Laren in the front office and will be available 9am to 2:30pm each day in the office for any admin related requirements.
Next term we welcome several new students to our school community and we farewell this term Rose in reception and Sophie in class 1. It has been lovely having them as part of our school community and we wish them well as they proceed onto new learning opportunities.
Please be aware that you may have recently received requests for your family to connect onto Skoolbag which is our communications platform for newsletters, announcements, absences etc. Teachers have also sent requests for connection to Seesaw where they can share more regularly classroom work, pictures, videos and learning activities. Due to COVID readiness requirements, schools need to have at least 2 different modes of communication and also an online platform to deliver learning activities at very short notice in case of lockdown. Teachers have been informed that hard packs may not be able to be disseminated in the time frames required and therefore Seesaw is a very user friendly platform to deliver learning activities for our students. Many classes have already connected with these platforms and receive updates from their teacher regularly which I am also able to view. If you need further information please see your classroom teacher next term.
As we are at the half way mark for the year, I find it useful to reflect on student progress and I was very pleased to read through the year 3-7 reports. It always amazes me that with students dedication and effort they can grow so quickly in terms of conceptual development in curriculum areas and their social and emotional learning. I have really enjoyed going into classes and spending time with the students and hearing about what they enjoy and their views on learning as part of the student forum and wider conversations. Student voice is very powerful in creating self-awareness, student advocacy and strengthening personalised life-long learning. The students are insightful in their responses and have varied interests that should be celebrated and built upon. I am excited to see what the remainder of the year brings as they explore, wonder and develop their curiosity and creativity.
Have a wonderful holiday break everyone, I certainly look forward to connecting in with my own family and will be enjoying a little down time as I am sure my teachers will. The seasonal aspect is wonderful and despite the cold weather, walking in the hills is lovely as is the opportunity to light the fire! We look forward to seeing you all next term.
Kind Regards, Sybila.
